too big for one's britches
too big for one's britches adjective: disturbingly confident; unacceptably cocky.
Adjective
too big for one's britches (not comparable)
- Disturbingly confident; unacceptably cocky.
- "There was a reward, I heard. That would pay the doctor and the hotel." "You ain't going to collect it,' Bert informed him. "It'd make you too big for your britches."1949, Dorothy M. Johnson, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance; in Indian Country, London: Corgi, 1961, page 103
- A diffident, dedicated man, Bradley seemed the personification of rectitude. He never got too big for his britches.1989 May 22, Edwin M. Reingold, “Hard Times for Teflon Tom”, in TIME, archived from the original on 22 Oct 2010
- Synonyms:
- too big for one's boots
- Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: Too large to fit into one's pants.
Synonyms of too big for one's britches
Forms of too big for one's britches
| alternative form | too big for one's breeches |
|---|
Origin of too big for one's britches
US origin, 19th c.
Questions about too big for one's britches
- What does too big for one's britches mean?
- Too big for one's britches means disturbingly confident; unacceptably cocky.
- What part of speech is too big for one's britches?
- Too big for one's britches is an adjective.
Words near too big for one's britches in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: too big for one's britches (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-too big for one's britches.ogg.
Cite this entry: “too big for one's britches.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/too_big_for_one%27s_britches. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.